writing directly to std::string internal buffers

Question

I was looking for a way to stuff some data into a string across a DLL boundary. Because we use different compilers, all our dll interfaces are simple char*.

Is ther

Answer 1

Considering Patrick's comment I would say, it's OK and convenient/efficient to directly write into a std::string. I would use &s.front() to get a char *, like in this mex example:

#include "mex.h"
#include 
void mexFunction(
    int nlhs,
    mxArray *plhs[],
    int nrhs,
    const mxArray *prhs[]
)
{
    std::string ret;
    int len = (int)mxGetN(prhs[0]);
    ret.reserve(len+1);
    mxGetString(prhs[0],&ret.front(),len+1);
    mexPrintf(ret.c_str());
}